“Chris Hedges: The ‘Terrifying’ State Assault on Press Freedom” by Truthdig and Democracy Now!

Excerpts from an interview on Democracy Now!; Truthdig post on May 15, 2013

“We are now in the last moments of an effort to, in essence, effectively extinguish press freedom,” Truthdig columnist Chris Hedges told “Democracy Now!” in a conversation Wednesday about revelations of the Justice Department’s seizure of work, home and cellphone records of up to 100 reporters and editors at The Associated Press.”

“Hedges has devoted the last few years of his career to championing people who become enemies of the state for opposing its abuse of power. Those people include the accused WikiLeaks source Bradley Manning, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, whom he recently interviewed in Assange’s de facto prison in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, and Mumia Abu-Jamal, the former Black Panther who was convicted of killing a Philadelphia police officer under fishy legal proceedings and is currently serving a life term in prison. In the persecution endured by those figures, Hedges sees the future of anyone who effectively opposes government and corporate power.”